Explosions at the Boston marathon

You should make no apology. Too often are the guilty treated with more rights and respect than the victims

This.

Too often are we seeing rapists and murderers on our own soil getting better treatment than their victims, it's sickening, the british "justice" system is a f**king joke but that's a different matter altogether.

Disgusting that anyone could carry out such an attack, so many people do these things for great causes.

The reduction in violence in our society is one of the few genuinely good things to happen to us as a species (this includes the reduction in violence in a punitive sense). Not that long ago the only real punishment for crimes (from petty theft, to adultery etc) was hanging / mutilation.

I really don't see the current state of affairs as a disgrace. You might disagree but the flipside is a more violent society with the ability to put people to death both innocent and guilty about the only sentence from whence carried out there is no recourse.

If you fancy a good read may I suggest this book - http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Better_Angels_of_Our...

The emotional and irrational reaction to a situation like this is exactly the reason we need a legislative and progressive penal system based on reason. It's all too easy to knee jerk and overreact to a situation the effects of which are often much worse than the initial harm (911 / afganastan / iraq as a perfect example).

The bombs where indeed a tragedy and a sorry sight, my condolences/thoughts (and prayers if I was a religious man) go to the families and people involved.

But it doesn't take away from the fact that more people died from just as egregious acts in other countries on the same day that receive much less exposure and righteous indignation as a result

.

EDIT: See comment below. I was supposed to be highlighting a sad fact about western feelings but failed miserably.

I'm not a c**t honest

It's not that American life is valued more than life in Iraq (for me anyway) but i think more the shock that something like that has happened in these circumstances in America, when it's sadly "normal" to hear news of bombings and attacks in Iraq, Syria, etc; it's pretty much expected and thus accepted a lot easier.

I don't really know what to say to this.

That's exactly right it's just events like this that puncture our normal values/mental states that resonate much more unequally so.

As such they have a huge increase an impact on us they tend to lead to knee jerk and unwarrented policy decisions armed guards in US schools/Airport secutity as prime example.

Could you imagine the news reading out all the deaths of British and commonwealth soliders during either of the World Wars on a daily basis it would take hours.

But now thankfully with military deaths reduced in such a way we can give those who do die in service more recognition for their sacrifice.

It always pays to keep sight of reality.

Honest reflection....?

True.

I'm saddened by the incident in Boston but no more so than whenever I hear about this stuff happening elsewhere. A human life is a human life, it shouldn't matter where or who it is.

Sorry i should have worded it much better, i think it came across as the opposite of what i was getting at.

Of course i feel the same sadness at the loss of any innocent lives but for some reason a glance at a daily iraq bombing news story doesn't stir up emotions with me now.
This did, and a relatively small number of people died.

I can't help it, and I'm sure it's the same for lot's of people.

Just wrote a huge reply and deleted it .

The short version is that the "Western" world is less violent and more forgiving than the countries where military intervention is (probably wrongly) used .

A charity marathon (to help others and raise massive money) is not likely to be bombed in a Islamist state - because they don't have such altruism

I'm old enough to have been a young man when 9/11 happened, and since then the sheer number of bombings and terrorist acts and probably more influentially the subsequent actions and reactions which have divided people and shifts in attitude have shaped how I see the world.

I grew up a large part before 9/11 ever happened and can remember what it was like then, the massive shift in attitude over the last 12 years has been noticeable. Shocking at first, then it just became normal.

Honestly when I see these bombings now, instead of the people all I think of is the backlash toward certain racial groups with subsequent reactions and backlashes to the larger community. Just more segregation and ill feeling all around. These types of tragedies only bring the worst out in people, guys you could talk to for years but something like this happens and the segregation begins. 'They' are blamed, fingers are pointed.

When subtle little accusations and racial stereotypes start getting thrown around, a guy can't help but feel bad and drawn towards defending his roots. It's f**king hard not to just give in to the temptation of falling in to the same trap.

I've added to my post. But just to clarify, when I say 'it became normal' I'm referring to the attitude shift, rather than the acts of violence.

What's tragic for me is being forced to pick and choose where my loyalty lies. I've happy being British, I like it here. But tragedies like this which bring out the worst in people only ever tend to polarise people, not bring them together. It's hard not to slip into that.